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"El Bar", directed by Alex de la Iglesia and screened at the
Berlin Film Festival on Wednesday, shows a man being gunned down
as he leaves a bar and another man who goes to help also being
shot.
"If you're confronting death, your very basic instincts are
aroused and in this film it's really about survival for all of
us," said Blanca Suarez, who plays one of the bar's customers.
Director de la Inglesia said the film - which is peppered with
humorous moments - was a "comedy of terror" and reflected a
situation faced by people in Europe and elsewhere in which they
are trapped with no exit route as fear and anxiety increase.
After the shooting, the remaining customers wonder whether there
is a gunman on a nearby roof, if a terrorist is going to kill
them all, and if this attack will end up like the attack on
Paris in 2015 in which 130 people were killed.
They panic and turn on each other - sometimes with a gun - as
they attempt to work out who the killer is. Police seal off the
bar, a sick man found in the bathroom dies, the bar is torched
and they are forced into the sewers to retrieve medicine.
De la Inglesia said he was already writing the script for "El
Bar" when Islamist militants attacked the Bataclan concert hall,
cafes and bars in Paris in Nov. 2015. But he said the attack was
on his mind while he worked on the film.
"It's come closer to us in a very violent way and we felt we
were protected before but the fear and the terror are always
there in life and there are times in our life maybe when you're
not aware of it every day but you cannot deny the fear and the
terror now," he said.
(Reporting by Michelle Martin; Editing by Angus MacSwan)
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